Conference season has officially begun, and over the next two weeks I'll travel across eight time zones and 11,000 miles to attend two shows that are at the forefront of the desktop virtualization and enterprise mobility markets. This week is BriForum London 2013, followed by Citrix Synergy in Los Angeles next week.

Can Remote Desktop Services replace Citrix XenApp?

Here's what I'm looking forward to and what developments I'm expecting.

Five must-see BriForum London 2013 sessions

TechTarget's BriForum conference started as a Terminal Server and application virtualization show back in 2005, but it has grown to encompass all aspects of desktop virtualization and enterprise mobility management. Having chosen this year's sessions -- along with Brian Madden (it's a rigorous process) -- I'm breaking down the ones that are must-sees:

What got us here won't get us there: Today's IT needs to get with the times

This session by David Stafford, director of new markets and technology at VMware Inc., is designed to be a wake-up call for anyone that believes the future of IT, specifically desktops, is going to remain on the same path it has been on for the last 20 years. Stafford has spent his career focusing on desktops and end-user computing, and he knows exactly where we are coming from -- and where we need to go in the world of empowered, savvy users.

From zero to RDS 2012 hero: Learn all the new features and how they compare to XenApp

The always-entertaining Claudio Rodrigues, CEO of WTSLabs Inc., answers the question that's on everyone's mind after every major server OS release from Microsoft: Can Remote Desktop Services replace Citrix XenApp? I expect to see lots of live demonstrations as well as Rodrigues' take from the field -- not to mention lively discussion.

Things in AD that can hurt your applications and desktop virtualization efforts

Carl Webster, founder of Carl Webster Consulting, is building on his fast-growing reputation as an Active Directory (AD) optimization expert, and this session is an updated version of one he has given at conferences all over the U.S. and Europe. It addresses all the tiny, seemingly unrelated bits of Active Directory that can wreak havoc (or streamline) your desktop virtualization environment. It's something most people never think of, but based on the work Webster has done, they should.

What still holds up as a Citrix best practice 12 years after MetaFrame tuning tips?

Claudio Rodrigues made the list twice this year, due largely to the fact that he spends most of his time in the trenches. Twelve years ago, Rick Dehlinger, nGenx Corp. chief technology officer, and others put together a list of "tuning tips" designed to help make deployments of Citrix MetaFrame servers easier. To this day, many people still use this document, despite the fact that server versions, Citrix platforms and protocols have undergone drastic transformations. Will they hold up? My guess is no, and Rodrigues tells us why.

Login Consultants CTO Jeroen van de Kamp and PQR CTO Ruben Spruijt have consistently delivered Virtually Reality Check sessions over the years based on their work in the lab and in the field. This session provides information and best practices related to Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V 3 and Windows 8 in Remote Desktop Session Host and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments, including the long-rumored performance increases of Windows 8 over Windows 7 in VDI environments.

Of course, this is only the first BriForum in 2013, and we'll be bringing the show to Chicago, which expands to three days this July 30-Aug. 1. Attendees of that show will also have access to the session videos from London, which is good because it's probably the only way I'll see all the sessions I want to see!

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